The Higher Usefulness of Science 53 



as a biologist or an electrician ? Again, and finally for 

 illustrative purposes, how far may science go in aid of 

 war before it will bring down upon itself first mild 

 criticism and at last imprecation? If war really has 

 become, as is being repeatedly said, an affair of en- 

 gineering and chemistry, and if its destructiveness and 

 horror-production should pass all bounds, is it not 

 inevitable that engineering and chemistry should come 

 to be looked upon as enemies of mankind? That would 

 surely be the case should the world at large be driven 

 to conclude that these sciences are doing more harm 

 than good. 



The other aspect of the general problem of science 

 in its relation to man's social and moral life, is that 

 of the influence certain basal ideas of science have on 

 the conceptions and beliefs by which such life is guided. 

 To illustrate, how, if at all, has the abandonment of 

 the geocentric conception of the universe held before 

 Copernicus and Galileo, affected the course of moral 

 doctrine through the centuries? Would any even half- 

 thoughtful person contend that it has had no effect 

 in this way? Or, coming closer to our own time, how 

 if at all has the modern theory of organic evolution 

 affected moral ideas and moral life? Surely no one 

 would deny, and be in earnest about it, that the effect 

 in this case has been prodigious. To mention specifi- 

 cally only one item, who does not know that the catch 

 phrase "The fittest survive, that is the way of nature," 

 taken directly from biology, has been used as a salve 



